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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28075413">An Old Dog</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/MegumitheGreat/pseuds/MegumitheGreat'>MegumitheGreat</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Caretaking, Comatose Cloud, Guilt, Hallucinations, M/M</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 18:07:11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,490</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28075413</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/MegumitheGreat/pseuds/MegumitheGreat</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Zack fails to stop the infantrymen from kidnapping Cloud during their escape from Nibelheim, but after retrieving him, he's faced with the guilt of not protecting him.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Zack Fair &amp; Cloud Strife</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>16</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>An Old Dog</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>You can guess where I am in Crisis Core with this fic!  I recently streamed this part of the game, and I've never actually failed at saving Cloud.  And it's awful watching Shin-Ra speed off with him in their truck and Zack falls to his knees in defeat.  Like it's just awful.  But as such, this is a guilty pleasure of a fic because I love, love, love this part of the game so much.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>Cloud!  Come back!</em>
</p>
<p>His heart sank from his chest to the ground as he watched the Shin-Ra army vehicle speed away with Cloud inside it.  Zack felt a bout of nausea bubble up in his throat at the thought them making it all the way back to Midgar just to continue experimenting on him—just for <em>Hojo</em> to keep torturing him.  Still, there was an unstoppable need to chase after the truck.  His legs, restless in the fear of losing the only other person he had now, moved on their own.</p>
<p>“Come on, floor it!” one of the infantrymen in the truck yelled at the driver.</p>
<p>“I-I’m going as fast as I can.  These roads aren’t like the ones in Midgar!” he replied.</p>
<p>The truck rumbled and rocked on the dirt road, flinging the unsuspended body they had chucked into the back around.  They had been in such a rush to get away from Zack that they hadn’t bothered to fasten him down.  Cloud, not cognizant of what was happening, flopped around the back like a child’s doll.  His porcelain-white skin bruised black and purple, and occasionally he was hooked by random things strewn about.  Light red beads stained his arms.</p>
<p>“Watch out!” the passenger infantryman called out a moment too late.  </p>
<p>The front right wheel of the truck hit a deep pothole in the road which sent the entire vehicle flying through the air.  A loud crash thundered through the Nibel area, and Zack finally caught up to the infantrymen.  The truck had tumbled along the road, and pieces of it had fallen off.  The engine was shot, the windows shattered with glass all around.  The two infantrymen’s limbs were splayed out of the windows; one of them was calling for someone to help him.  His arms were obviously broken, and as the only other person came up to see him, he begged for mercy.  With the Buster Sword, Zack cut off his arms.  It wouldn’t be a quick death, but at least he would bleed out faster.</p>
<p>“Cloud!” he gasped.  He scrambled along to the back of the truck.  “Cloud, Cloud, can you hear me?!”  He remembered.  Cloud couldn’t speak.  “Just hold on!”</p>
<p>The doors to the back of the truck were scrunched up.  If he was going to open the truck, he would need either monstrous strength or a blow torch.  He didn’t have the latter, and he felt dizzy all of a sudden.  Stress?  Anxiety?  Worry?  It didn’t matter, he had decided frantically.  Cloud could be dying or dead; there was no time to figure out what was making him feel so sick.  Gripping the handles of the doors, Zack prayed that his partner was in some sort of living state.  With one foot placed on one door and mustering all his strength on the other door, he began the effort to rescue him.</p>
<p>He pulled with the weight of his body, and slowly, the door screeched open. The hinges were destroyed, but with just a little more effort, he knew it in his soul that he could break open the truck and liberate him!  After a raucous pang of the hinges finally giving way, the door fell to the side.  There, Cloud lay, eyes glowing and lidded but his skin painted all shades of crimson.</p>
<p>“Cloud, are you alright?!” Zack asked him, climbing into the back of the truck.  At first, he touched his face with a gloved hand.  That, however, seemed detached as if he were nothing more than a box of cargo.  Pulling back his hand, he tore off the glove.  Then, gently again, he stroked his face.  Anything to offer a little comfort in exchange for the tremendous amount of agony that would normally come to him if he were conscious.  “Don’t worry.  I’m going to get you out of here as carefully as I can.  Just hang on.”</p>
<p>Zack slid into the overturned truck knowing full-well that he could get hurt, too, but it aright if he did.  Still, he had to pull Cloud out and make sure he was alright.  There were tiny shards of glass all inside and whatever had been in the back had been thrown around.  In the growing darkness of the setting sun over the Nibel area, the bruises appeared like growing holes, or perhaps Zack’s eyes were playing tricks on him in his dizzying fatigue.</p>
<p>He reached farther in, gently taking hold of Cloud’s wrist.  Leveraging himself in and shuffling towards him, he was finally far enough inside that he could lift the debris off him.  It was all junk in the truck, and he had to wonder just why Shin-Ra would leave so many random objects in their vehicles.  When the last piece of garbage was swept off of him, Zack brought Cloud into his arms and held onto him for a second.  He had to make sure he had a secure grip on him.  Then he shimmied out.</p>
<p>That was when the worry and the panic took him.  He hugged him tightly, feeling the trembling of his own body against his, and he admitted to himself that he was unsure of what to do now.  They couldn’t leave Nibelheim in this condition, but they needed to get back to Midgar.  Not only was Cloud sick but he was injured, too…then Zack hurriedly looked him over.</p>
<p>“How careless,” he grumbled.  “No reason to treat you like this.”</p>
<p>He touched the cut that Cloud sustained in the back; it was sticky.  Even though he was exhausted from fighting the infantrymen and dizzy from the first throes of hunger and thirst, Zack picked Cloud up in his arms.  He felt lighter.</p>
<p>“Don’t worry, Cloud,” he said quietly and sweetly to him like a parent to a child.  “We’ll get you fixed up.  Then…Then we can find you a real doctor.”</p>
<p>His body was feeling heavier with every step back to the Shinra Manor.  So tired.  So hungry.  So much aching.  He got to the upper terraces of the village before he fell to his knees for a breather.  Naturally, he tried to make sure that he didn’t drop Cloud or fall atop him, and yet even the slightest bump against him made his heart race and his mind formulating a hundred apologies.  But Cloud didn’t react.  He just stayed there in his arms, eyes glazed over, slowly breathing because it was the only thing his body still understood what to do.</p>
<p>Zack got himself together to push forward.  He was so close to the manor, but the way upstairs took even more out of him.  When he finally came to the bed just outside of the spiraling staircase down to the basement, he flopped over Cloud and gasped for air.</p>
<p>“Why…am I so…tired…?” Zack slurred.  Again, he picked himself up.  “No…I can’t sleep…Cloud needs help…”</p>
<p>As he breathed long and deep in a vain attempt to reenergize himself, he smelled the putrid mako on his clothes.  Stinging his nose and burning his eyes, it had to be irritating his skin.  The cold mountain air wasn’t doing any favors.  The rate at which mako evaporated was far slower than water, so Cloud wouldn’t be dry anytime soon.  Zack wanted to get him out of those clothes, but without anything to dry him off, nothing would change.</p>
<p>Still, that horrendous stench…</p>
<p>He remembered when the smell of mako didn’t bother him.  Now, it just made him realize how insignificant he really was.</p>
<p>“Cloud, I’m sorry, but I’m have to take those clothes off of you,” Zack whispered.  He brought his hand to the blond hair, hesitating for a moment.  “Do…I…have the right?”  He couldn’t protect him.  Was he allowed to take care of him now?  “Ugh, if I don’t, no one will.  Now isn’t the time to second-guess this.  I’ll make it up to you, Cloud.  Don’t worry about me ever leaving you.  I’ll look out for you.  I’ll make you get better.”</p>
<p>He committed to patting his head.  Even in his vegetative state, there was a special kind of serenity in the younger man’s face that both made Zack feel immense guilt but also a small comfort.  He had someone with him.  He couldn’t talk or enjoy life or whatever was left of it, but he wasn’t alone.</p>
<p>Gingerly, Zack began his task.  He slipped off the muffler and removed the pauldrons and belts.  Before he continued to undress him and tossing the mako-soaked articles on the ground away from Cloud, he stared at the faded stained on his chest.  The tear in his shirt was still there.  His heart felt like someone was squeezing it.</p>
<p>When he opened the shirt, Zack gasped and covered his mouth.  Tears welled in his eyes upon seeing the large scar in the center of his torso.  It wasn’t just from Sephiroth’s assault.  His memories were fuzzy, but he remembered seeing someone or that demon of a scientist pushing his hand into the wound.  He faintly heard the terrified and agonizing screams.  Now that he could see just how they damaged him.  He grazed his fingers over the scar.</p>
<p>“Ah…” Cloud uttered just softly enough to make him flinched.</p>
<p>“You felt that, huh?” Zack asked him.  “I’m sorry.  I’m…so sorry.  I guess it must still hurt even though it looks healed.”</p>
<p>Scooping him up, he peeled the shirt from his back.  He was cool, much cooler than he would have liked.  Was it from the mako?  He held Cloud close to him; would this work?  Maybe it wouldn’t, but Zack relished that he might find some warmth in holding him.  Letting him back down on the bed, he mentally prepared to take off the rest of it.  Once he was naked, he needed to wrap him in the comforter as tightly as he could to keep him warm.</p>
<p>He unstrapped his boots and pulled them off then the socks.  Along with the other articles of clothing, he tossed them into the pile.  As he returned his attention to the poor infantryman, he noted his toes.  How long had they been soaking in mako?  His toes were white-turning-blue, and the soles were wrinkly like coral.  Not quite trench foot but starting to look like it.</p>
<p>“Okay, just a little more,” Zack sighed.  He held his head, gulping down air.  “Come on, focus…you don’t have time to mess around now…Cloud needs you…”</p>
<p>Tightening his concentration, he crawled onto the bed.  Cloud lay prone before him, softly breathing as an indication that he hadn’t froze to death yet.  He unbuttoned his pants, sliding them down with some difficulty.  He hadn’t undressed an unconscious person before, but he knew that pulling wet clothes off skin was more arduous than it looked.  Combining the two wore him out faster than he had thought.  The same went for his undergarments, but while they were easier, Zack turned his head away.</p>
<p>“S-Sorry about all this, man,” he sheepishly said.  “I-I know you like your privacy, but…well, I can’t…do much about that…I just know that you can’t go around with wet pants, you know?”</p>
<p>He climbed off the bed now that Cloud had been stripped of the clothes that were perpetuating his condition.  Next was wrapping him up so he wouldn’t freeze.  He sought the corner of the comforter and the top sheet.  He peeled them back as far as he could with the old smell of dust and age striking his nose like the mako, and after that came the multitasking.  Carefully, he cradled Cloud in his arms like a sleeping prince.  He was still cold.</p>
<p>“This doesn’t smell great, but bear with it for a little while, okay?” Zack whispered to him.  “It’ll keep you warm…probably.”  No, it had to keep him warm.  He placed him under the covers, tucked him in, and looked at his face again.  “Never thought this would happen, did we?”</p>
<p>Now, Zack thought, he could rest.  The rug that covered most of the wooden floor was just as dusty, if not more, as everything else.  He didn’t mind laying down on it.  As he lowered himself down, his head swam in a whirlpool of nausea and confusion again.  Whatever happened to them really messed them up.  The sickly-sweet saliva that was the precursor to violent vomiting built up in his mouth.  He forced himself to keep it down, but keep what down?  He started to realize that they hadn’t eaten since they woke up.  There was nothing around that they could hunt.  Monsters were rarely edible and not very tasty when they were.</p>
<p>“Maybe that’s why I feel so weak…” Zack murmured.</p>
<p>“Zack, do you want to lay on the bed?” Cloud’s quiet but sweet voice came.</p>
<p>Zack immediately shot up, as if frightened that this whole time Cloud had been watching him and feeling him undress him.  His vision undulated.  “C-Cloud, you’re awake?” he asked.</p>
<p>Cloud avoided the question.  “You can sleep next to me; I don’t mind,” he said, gently smiling at him.</p>
<p>“I-I couldn’t…I mean, wouldn’t that be uncomfortable for you?”</p>
<p>“I know you’re cold, too.  We can warm each other up.”</p>
<p>“But…!”</p>
<p>Cloud just smiled.  His eyes—blue like the sleepy sky—shined.  Unsure at first, Zack kicked off his boots and socks.  The fighting that he had done earlier had served to help the mako dry, but he didn’t dare strip.  If he had to put clothes back on, it would have been too cumbersome.  The most he could do that his body would allow was to take off the belts and pauldrons to be more comfortable.  He hesitated again.</p>
<p>“Cloud, are you really awake?” he asked.</p>
<p>“We’re both cold, so let’s rest together,” Cloud reiterated.</p>
<p>Zack climbed into bed with him, wrapping the covers around both of them as tightly as he could.  Once the covers were set, he embraced him with the hope that they could share each other’s body heat.  Cloud snuggled up close to Zack’s chest.</p>
<p>“I’m really sorry,” Zack said again, this time with the hope that now that Cloud was awake, he could hear him.  “I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you or Tifa or the village.  I tried so hard, you know?  I tried to protect everyone because I thought I could be a hero, but…”  He choked on a sob.  “I thought I could be a hero that you could look up to, but I’m no hero…!”  His embrace grew tighter.  “I’m sorry that I let Sephiroth hurt all of you…”</p>
<p>Cloud remained silent.  He had always been.  Quietly resting, not knowing where he was other than in Zack’s arms; he hadn’t said anything.</p>
<p>“Ha-ha, was I…hallucinating…?” Zack tearfully asked himself.  “I can’t remember much anymore.”  He buried his face in his hair.  “Please, forgive me.  I’m…I’m an old dog compared to you now; I can’t remember things correctly.  I’m sorry, Cloud.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>How many times will I write this scenario?</p></blockquote></div></div>
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